-Our first guests tonight are the father/son duo
you know from shows like "9-1-1: Lone Star,"
"The Grinder" and "The Lowe Files."
They co-created and star in "Unstable,"
which is streaming now on Netflix.
Let's take a look. -Let's talk about us.
-Us? -I'm worried about us.
-Are we an "us"? I've never thought of us as an "us."
-Exactly. Since you've been here, you've made friends.
That's great. But we haven't spent much time together.
-Mm-hmm. Because at work, you're my boss.
And at home, you're my dad.
And everybody else is just a normal friend.
-Yes. So let's go somewhere where we're not father/son
or boss/employee. Just friends.
-Oh, my God. Are you going to make me jump out of an airplane
strapped face-to-face with you again?
Because that was terrible. -Well, I loved it.
And I'm the one who got vomited on.
-Please welcome to the show Rob and John Owen Lowe, everyone.
♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
Welcome to the show, gentlemen. This is very exciting for me.
-It's very exciting for me to sit
in the least important position in the studio.
-There you go. -I knew he was going
to say something about this. -Yeah, he was going to
jump right in. And I noticed he pointed there.
He wanted you to sit there and then he was going
to be like, "Woe is me." -Well, he wanted it
to make it seem like it was his decision.
-That's exactly right.
-You were going to sit here no matter what?
-That's what I want everyone else to know.
But yes. -So you are --
You are playing father/son in this show.
You are not playing this father/son.
But it does seem to be a heightened version
of your reality. Is that fair?
-It is. I think that Rob is dangerously close
to as insane as his character is on the show.
-Uh-huh. [ Laughter ]
-But it's -- yeah, it's --
I mean, you want to defend yourself slightly?
[ Laughter ]
-Yes.
What happened was John Owen would troll me mercilessly.
And I think the last time I was on the show --
-I was going to say we dove deep into the fact
that you got trolled hard by John Owen.
-And thank you then for making this show happen
because it caught on and people kind of liked it.
And we were like, "Maybe there's a show there."
And that's how we came up with the idea.
-And so this premise, again, you are not Rob Lowe the actor,
and you are not his son, but you are --
I mean, is it safe to say -- and again,
correct me if I offend your father
in any way -- an egomaniac? Maybe a bit of an egomaniac?
-Yeah. No, I mean, yes. A bit? Yeah.
I mean, and to be clear, this is like not a bit.
We leave here and get in the car together
and it's straight to the car mirror and like,
"how do I look" and... -Gotcha.
[ Laughter ]
-This is authentic. -Now, see, I would --
And again, you're going to be less a part of this.
-Okay. -Thank God.
[ Laughter ]
-Because I would have thought --
And again, I've met your dad.
Your dad is a very cool person when you meet him in real life.
And I would have thought he was a very cool dad.
But based on your social media,
I've been completely disabused of that notion.
-First of all, I'm glad to hear that. Yeah.
[ Laughter ]
Look, he is cool. I will begrudgingly admit that --
Well, I don't know about cool, but he's a good dad.
-He's handsome. -Yeah, well, yeah.
[ Laughter ] Sure.
He's a good dad. But he's -- You...
-Yes. -...are...
-Yes. -...fairly insane.
[ Laughter ]
And, you know, I like to say a benevolent narcissist, right?
So yes.
-Benevolent.
-Well, now, Rob, I have to say again,
I have a couple of boys of my own.
I can't even imagine how wonderful it must be
to be on set together.
And especially, I should note as well,
this show has been incredibly well received so far.
Are you just so happy and proud every day?
-It's pretty -- It's really special because, I mean,
you're a generation behind me with your kids,
but they'll get to a point where they don't need you anymore
and they're off in their lives
and you have to figure out ways to spend time with them.
-Yeah. -And that's what we have done.
-Yes. -And you obviously must love
your son John because, again, like I said,
he's been very hard on you.
[ Laughter ]
This is one where you wrote, Rob,
you wrote "Who wore it best?"
-I thought it was funny. See, I'm doing
the Angelina Jolie leg. -And first comment was John here
"Why did you start using Instagram freely again?
Go back to the podcast posts."
[ Laughter ]
-That was a good one. I'm proud of that one.
-This is again, this is all him commenting on you.
So there are you on the boat. And now again, Rob,
you tried to be funny here. "Unreal.
This drug-smuggling boat landed on our beach
in the middle of the night. Happy Labor Day."
-True. -John wrote,
"We need to start teaching our parents
Internet literacy and decorum."
[ Laughter ]
-Can I just quickly just say that that's real?
That boat washed up and it was like a crime scene
and he thought he was important enough
that he could just go there
and start touching things, like a live crime scene,
and then post about it on Instagram.
And so it's kind of a bit, but it's also very real.
-You're trying to like -- It's an intervention of a sort.
-At a certain point you'd think he'd notice,
but I just get to keep going because he hasn't noticed yet.
-This is really the best one. It's the Oscars.
-Yeah.
-You once famously performed the Oscars.
-Oh, yes. Oh, yes. -Yeah.
Maybe the kids don't remember it.
-Well, they will now!
-So you did a song and dance with Snow White.
-Yes, I did. -And this is the photo
that John put up that says,
"Congrats to all the Oscar winners, and to the losers,
you still never did this."
[ Laughter ]
-That -- I was. Yeah. [ Cheers and applause ]
That one was mean.
That one maybe was too mean. -No, I don't think --
Look, I'm good. The meaner, the better. I can take it.
-You're a good sport. -Thank you.
-Now, the other thing, though, is, Rob, is it accurate
that John did not grow up watching your films?
-Ask him.
-Did you watch any of your dad's movies?
Oh, no, no, no. Ask him about your favorite
"West Wing" moment. -Okay.
What's your favorite "West Wing" moment?
-I don't have one 'cause I've never seen it.
-You never watched "The West Wing"?
-I will say this much.
Aaron Sorkin and the rest of the cast, incredibly talented.
-Okay now. -I'm sure they're great.
I bet that show is phenomenal, but I've never seen it.
-He's actually not kidding.
-Now, how does that make you feel?
-Sad and lonely. -And lonely.
You would feel like that either way.
-I guess so you realize -- And again now,
I don't want to turn this on you because, you know,
we've talked about your dad's imperfections a great deal here.
I got to say, John, the fact that you will only watch
one of your dad's shows that you're in...
-Thank you. [ Laughter ]
-You know, I got to be honest, it's a real, like,
son of Rob Lowe thing to do. -Look.
[ Laughter ] That is totally fair.
[ Cheers and applause ] -Thank you.
-That's valid. That's valid.
I watched "Parks and Rec."
I watched that before he went on it and then...
[ Laughter ]
...continued to watch it.
-Oh, that's nice. -Yes.
-What about on set?
Because you you have less of a background.
I know you're a writer, but on camera,
this show was a bit of a -- it's a big deal.
Was it helpful to have your dad on set as your costar?
-It was.
But he...
He's difficult at times. I would say that...
There was this one moment -- I'll share this one moment
because it was sweet but also disturbing,
which was that the first day of shooting,
it's the first shot and I'm a little nervous.
I haven't been -- I hadn't had that much responsibility on set.
And so it's like I got to get on my mark.
We're about to roll. And right before we roll,
you started to ramble about how the mark was wrong
and how someone was going to cross in front of me
and my hair looked off
and maybe my chin wasn't chiseled enough
and whatever it was. [ Laughter ]
And it got me to this place
where I was very frustrated and very anxious.
And then they called action, and it was what my character
was supposed to be doing in that moment.
And I thought to myself afterwards, I'm like,
"Damn it, did he just, like, Miyagi me or something?"
[ Laughter ]
But I don't want to give him that much credit, so...
-Very, very well played, Dad.
Very impressive. It's a wonderful show.
And it is just so delightful to see you guys here in person.
Thanks so much for making the time.
-Thank you. -Thank you for having us.
-The Lowes, Rob and John Owen, everybody.
"Unstable" streaming now on Netflix.
We'll be right back with Judd Winick.